Week 1 and I'm already frustrated.

Posts: 4,148
8/11/12 5:11 P

ONE DAY A T TIME...THATS ALL WE HAVE.

current weight: 163.0

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8/11/12 12:09 P

try to take baby steps. you didn't put on the weight overnight, so you aren't going to lose it overnight.

Try to think of some goals that don't deal with the scale. Set a goal for water. If you aren't a water drinker-start small and icrease it. Set a goal for servings of veggies.

It's not like you can never have lasagna and wine again. Try to aim for portion control and moderation. Maybe start with a large salad before the lasagna to help fill you up. If you struggle with getting enough or too many calories-maybe try pre planning your meals or using the sparkpeople meal planner.

sparkpeople has a lot of great articles to motivate you!

Don't give up! : )

current weight: -1.6  under

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8/9/12 11:32 A

Kate-Joy, Hats off to you for your drop in dress sizes. That is an achievment I hope to soon revel


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Edited by: READE2MOVE2012 at: 8/9/2012 (11:34)

current weight: 302.0

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Posts: 5
8/9/12 1:33 A

I totally understand your frustration. My OCD requires that I weigh every morning. If I force myself not to step on the scale, I obsess all day and actually get an upset stomach. So, a pound here or there upsets me. I know all of the warnings and advice. But I still get down on myself for each and every slip up.

It is nice to know that I am not the only one. I wish there were none of us experiencing this. However, such is life.

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8/8/12 7:45 P

I think you know the answer, sweetie. Read your own post: "Yes, it will take longer. And yes, it will be harder. But I'll be healthier and happier in the long run because of it." There are no short cuts. A lesson I'm re-learning today. Try adding muscle through strength training. This is something I am going to do differently this time. I used to be all about cardio, and cardio is great too, but strength training is very important because lean muscle burns calories better than fat.

You know you can do this, right?! :) You're doing it! No matter what the scale says. Be in charge of the process, and the results will take care of themselves.

current weight: 140.8

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8/8/12 6:27 A

Since March I've lost 46 pounds. For the first month I got on the scale once. In the second month I got on the scale twice. I then bought I Bodybugg that required weekly weigh-ins to be as accurate as possible so I got on the scale once a week. If I was pre-menstral I skipped weighing myself that week because I didn't want to be discouraged or disappointed. It seems like you're weighing yourself a great deal and you're putting a lot of stock in that number. Everyone who's saying relax about weighing yourself is right. We've all been where you are, most of us multuiple times over the years. Don't weigh yourself for a few weeks and concentrate on other goals.

You seem to either exceed or fall far beneath your eating goals. Meal planning might help you right now. I wake up very early to go to work so I always have my breakfast and my lunch ready to go. I usually know what I'm having for dinner too, so I can either move it from freezer to fridge in the morning or I know what to purchase after the gym. A little planning will help you get closer to your calorie mark.

The 10,000 step thing is a good goal or even just walking one hour per day six days a week for the next two weeks. If you watch your nutrition and get a little more active you'll see results without all the misery of constant weigh-ins.

Pounds lost: 47.2

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8/8/12 12:03 A

I'm going to chime in and offer the same advice everyone else is offering: don't step on the scale!

I think it's also equally important to set different kinds of goals that help you stay motivated. For instance, when I started seriously working on changing my lifestyle in January I set the goal of reaching 10,000 steps every day. That was all I focused on.

To change my eating habits, I set the goal of swapping a high calorie food with a lower one. That was defined enough to give me something to shoot for, but also attainable enough so I could actually do it. Food swapping kept me motivated and the additional steps every day kept me working on my fitness. Meeting these two goals kept me busy enough that I didn't think a lot about the scale.

On another note, I empathize. I was stuck on a plateau for almost two months. It didn't matter what I did, I couldn't make any progress on the scale. I started to become emotional when I weighed in, so I stopped doing it and started focusing on noting things that indicated progress (since January I've dropped from a size 32 to a size 24), I'm able now to walk up a flight of stairs at work, and I can do 50 minutes of low-impact aerobics without feeling like my heart will explode.

Focusing on one or two small goals will keep you motivated and it will keep you distracted from the business of counting ounces and trying to figure out if you're "good" or "bad."

Pounds lost: 7.3

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8/6/12 10:56 A

I have a challenge for you.

Put your scale away for TWO WEEKS.

You're clearly one of those who does not handle daily weigh-ins, with their fluctuations and illogic, very well. So ditch it. Add a goal to your tracker, and check every day that you do not weigh.

Once you start weighing again... only do it once per week. I don't recommend Monday morning... for me, I'm a weekend eater, and I tend to weigh the most after a weekend of eating out. ;) Sodium is not kind to my scale. I weigh on Friday morning, at the same time, under the same circumstances, in my underpants, after my morning "constitutional." What matters isn't the day-to-day fluctuations, but the differences over weeks and months! I've even started tracking when I DON'T like the answer.... because I just learned something yesterday.

Looking back at all the weigh-ins I've had since October 2011, I ALWAYS have an uptick in weight the first week of the month. ALWAYS. Sometimes it's one pound, sometimes it's five. But it's regular as clockwork. After about a week or so, I drop again, back to a little bit below what I was before I started.

Hmm.

Wonder what that could be. ;)

Anyway, I challenge you: Don't weigh for 2 weeks. Focus on your nutrition, and being active, and see how you FEEL day to day. And see if maybe weighing less often is better for your heart. Because your heart doesn't listen to your brain very well. :)

I agree that you should ditch the diet. You don't HAVE to deny yourself for the rest of your life! I enjoy my treats. I love my Outback steakhouse, with its 1500 calorie meals in one sitting. I've eaten there several times. I don't deny myself anything I love. Do you need two bottles of wine every week? No. But once a month? Why not.

I indulge. I overeat occasionally. I am NOT perfect.

But I've gone from 211 to 186 -- I think my results speak for themselves.

You can do this. Stop dieting, and start LIVING!

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_ar
ticles.asp?id=620

Edited by: DRAGONCHILDE at: 8/6/2012 (11:00)

current weight: 186.0

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8/6/12 10:22 A

Hi Joanne,

One of the most demotivating factors when it comes to weight loss is allowing the scale to become the be-all, end-all of our success. It is just one tool of many, but sadly the one that too many of us put too much emphasis on.

Our weight is not a static number, but more like a vital sign. Just like your blood pressure, heart rate and body temp will vary throughout the day, same is true with your weight. Because our bodies are largely made up of water (the fitter we are the more water we retain), any deviation in our diet, hydration, workouts, even hormones can lead to a shift on the scale.

Know that all changes within the body must begin at the cellular level...all the way down to the fat cells need to release the free fatty acids, to the muscle cells making bigger and more numerous mitochondria-these are the organelles within the cells-to give us energy.

It isn't uncommon to see a slight upward shift in weight when we start exercising, or add a new training regimen and eating better. For one the muscles are making more mitochondria which allow for extra glycogen-stored glucose in the cells- therefore, your body hangs on to more water to help with the cooling off process for exercise and for helping process energy. Your muscles will also have an increase in blood volume in order to have better availability to oxygen and removing waste, especially lactic acid. These things coupled with eating higher fiber foods, such as fruits and veggies can show a gain, when in all reality it is just a shift in fluids.

Hang in there!!!

Coach Nancy

0 Days until:  The Historic MC 1/2 Marathon

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8/6/12 9:58 A

Joanne,

Listen to the logical side of your brain; NOT the emotional side! Good advice for a lot of life situations, actually! : )

I have to tell you: I, too, lost a good chunk of weight twice & re-gained it. Doing it "the right way" this time has been EASIER than any other time I tried to "diet." And I am at an age where everything is supposed to be harder!

Repeat the manta:
"No. More. Dieting!" "No. More. Dieting!" Progress, not perfection. Trust the process.

You can do this!!!

Posts: 782
8/6/12 9:44 A

Though it's a cliche, bear in mind this is a marathon, not a sprint. Hang in there.

current weight: 369.4

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8/6/12 9:08 A

Joanne,

Take a nice DEEP breathe !! You did NOT derail any of your efforts at weight loss or good health because you had some lasagna, cheese and wine over the weekend. That two pound "gain" is nothing more than water retention.

Ever notice your weight goes up during TOM ? most women tend to gain weight during their menstrual cycle. Is that a fat gain ? Nope, it's nothing more than a temporary water weight gain that passes in a few days. In order to truly gain two pounds of fat would have required you have to eaten at least 7,000 calories worth of that lasagna !

one pound of fat = 3,500 calories.

So, if you know you didn't eat that much food, then you know you didn't gain fat. it's easy to retain water for many different reasons. Shoot, I can GAIN as much as 3-4 POUNDS in a day because of water retention. I don't let it freak me out any more because I know this isn't a real gain.

If you weigh yourself on a regular basis, you're going to notice your weight goes up and down. Don't worry ! This really IS perfectly normal.

Remember, you're trying to change habits learned over a life time. That's not going to happen overnight, a week, a month or even a year. change is going to take time. So, cut yourself some slack. You don't have to be perfect to be healthy. that's not what Spark People is about.

Moderation, not deprivation. And if you did go a little overboard, that doesn't mean you have to beat yourself up because of it. What do I do when I over eat one day ? I eat more mindfully for the rest of the week.

That's what healthy people do. Some days they eat more than others and when they do, they just eat better the next day. it happens and that too is normal.

There really is more to good health than a number that stares at us from between our toes in the morning.

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8/6/12 8:46 A

Frustrated is an understatement. I'm sure there are other factors at play here (hormonal, emotional, etc.) but I am in tears after stepping on the scale this morning.

This isn't my first time on the diet-train, I've been on every yo-yo diet known to man and gained and lost more times than I can remember. The problem is that it always comes back, and it's hell on my body dieting that way. So I finally made the decision to do it the right way. Yes, it will take longer. And yes, it will be harder. But I'll be healthier and happier in the long run because of it.

I started trying to lose weight a few weeks ago, at 200 lbs. Just by making a few dietary changes and being slightly more active, I lost 5 lbs. My dad told me about Spark, and after looking into it, I decided to join. Keeping track of my every calorie and workout minute appeals to my perfectionist/OCD side. So I got even better about my food choices, and started actively working out...and yet I stayed at 195 lbs. Oh well, not frustrated at that point, it had only been a few days.

On Saturday, I finally broke through, and made it down to 193.2 - the lowest I've been in about a year. I was really excited and got a huge burst of motivation. Unfortunately, Saturday night my husband (who is naturally skinny no matter how much he eats) and I went over to a friend's house for dinner. I ate more than I should have, and definitely drank more than I should have...but in comparison to how I usually eat when I'm not dieting, I was actually pretty restrained. 1 piece of lasagna and garlic bread, and a few nibbles of cheese and prosciutto. before dinner. Really, not that bad. The 2 bottles of red wine...yeah, that was pretty bad. Also, I only had 4 glasses of water all day that day. Bad Jo.

So when I woke up and weighed myself on Sunday, I wasn't really all that surprised to see I'd gone back up to 195.2. But I didn't let it get to me, I know I didn't gain 2 lbs of fat in one day. It was bloating and water-weight, right? I figured I'd drink a ton of water and get back on track with food, and then today when I weighed myself (for my first official Spark weigh-in) I'd be back down to about 193. Well...I did drink tons of water yesterday...but I got busy and distracted and although I ate, I didn't eat nearly enough. By the time I tallied up my food choices at the end of the day, I'd only had 500 calories. No wonder I was feeling completely wiped out. My husband freaked out a little at that, and promptly went out and got me a smoothie (BAD choice, stupid empty calories) and put a scoop of whey protein powder into it. That, plus a handful of roasted soy nuts, got me up over 1000 calories for the day (still too low, I know) and we called it good enough.

This morning I weigh 196.8. The logical part of my brain knows that it's just a blip. Weight happens. My eating has been off for the last few days, it's not the number on the scale that matters, it's water-weight, etc. But right now, the emotional side of my brain seems to be in charge, and I'm pissed off and I'm upset. I should be able to have a slice of lasagna and some wine without worrying about screwing up all the work I've done over the last week.

I almost wish that I could just learn to be happy at 200 lbs. I love food and drinks, I love eating socially with my friends and family, and if I have to deprive myself of that for the rest of my life, then what the hell is the point?

*Sorry about how stupidly long this post is. I'm upset and needed to vent, and I'm a wordy person.

Edited by: JOANNENICOLE1 at: 8/6/2012 (08:49)

current weight: 195.2

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